By Umar Muhammad Puma
The House of Representatives has urged the National Population Commission to review the 2014 National Population Policy to enable it meet the current aspirations of Nigerians.
The House also mandated two of its committees to investigate and make relevant recommendations on an effective population management strategy for the country in view of poor data gathering.
The committees are that of population as well as national planning and economic development. The resolution was sequel to a motion sponsored by Rep Beni Lar (PDP, Plateau) and 15 others.
The lawmakers noted that “the current economic growth of 6.8 percent has so far not taken care of the population growth rate of 3.2 percent, and therefore poses grave danger to the economic well-being of Nigerians.”
They expressed concern that the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen despite the rise in economic growth, which has not improved the quality of lives of Nigerians, adding that unemployment has continued to rise at an alarming rate, thereby impacting negatively on the lives of Nigerians and the economy.
Thus, they said there was an urgent need to address the pertinent issues of education, hunger, disease, unemployment, housing, illiteracy and insecurity in the country in order to turn the population from a liability to a verifiable asset.
The motion was unanimously adopted by the House and subsequently referred to the above committees for further inputs.
